The Role of Caregivers’ Sleep Problems in the Association between Behavioral Symptoms of Dementia and Caregiving Depression and Anxiety

ABSTRACT

Objectives

Behavioral problems in people with dementia are a source of depression and anxiety for caregivers, who experience high levels of sleep problems. The present study aims to explore the role of sleep problems on the relationship between behavioral problems associated with dementias – considering its different dimensions – and family caregivers’ depressive and anxious symptoms.

Method

264 family caregivers participated in the study. Through face-to-face interviews, sociodemographic and health variables, caregivers’ depressive and anxious symptoms were measured, as well as their sleep problems. Data related to people with dementia symptoms and their level of independence in daily life activities were also collected. Data analysis consisted of simple mediational models using the PROCESS method for SPSS.

Results

the test for the indirect effect of disruptive behaviors on depression through sleep problems was statistically significant, as it was for disruptive behaviors on anxiety through sleep problems. The effect of sleep problems in the association between depressive and memory problems in the person with dementia, and caregivers’ depression and anxiety were not statistically significant.

Conclusions

Sleep problems are significantly and positively associated with care-recipients’ disruptive behaviors, but not with depressive and memory problems. The indirect effect of disruptive behaviors on caregivers’ mood through sleep problems suggests that disruptive behaviors seem to play an important role for understanding caregivers’ sleep problems.

Acknowledgments

We want to thank all the caregivers who took part in the study, and the following centres for collaborating in the project: Fundación Cien, Fundación María Wolff, Centro Reina Sofía de Cruz Roja, and Centro de Psicología Aplicada de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare no conflicts of interest associated with this manuscript.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website.

Additional information

Funding

The present project was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness under Grant [PSI2015-6152-C2-1-R and PID2019-106714RB-C21]; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación [PID2019-106714RB-C21]; Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [PSI2015-6152-C2-1-R].